The last leg of our month-long trip was through Washington and Oregon. We started off in Spokane, Washington, visiting my 94-year-old grandpa Bates. He lives alone since my grandma passed away four years ago and has lots of energy! He wanted us to stay with him, and he cooked us a nice dinner of fried chicken and corn on the cob.
I'm grateful to still have a grandfather in my life!
On our way out of town we stopped at the formal Duncan gardens in Manito Park in Spokane. I'd read it was one of the "must-see" gardens in the state of Washington.
It was lovely and very peaceful. We were there early in the morning and had the place to ourselves.
There was also a Japanese Garden in Manito park, so we had to visit it, too.
Kent's love of Japanese gardens is the main reason he wanted to move to Japan.
As we drove from Spokane, WA, to Vancouver, WA along the Columbia River Gorge, we had some great views of Mount Hood, Oregon.
We spent some time with Kent's family, and whenever he's in town they have fix-it projects for him to do. In the photo below he's adding some doors to a storage cabinet up at their campsite property in the woods at Lake Merwin.
While we were there we had a short memorial service for Kent's youngest brother, Robert, who passed away last year.
Here's a picture of the family who was there for the service.
From the campsite at Lake Merwin we were able to see a great view of Mount St. Helen's.
Another thing Kent spearheaded was a "This is Your Life" program for his mother at Vancouver Methodist Church, where she attends.
Her other children were in on it, but she was surprised by the program.
Here I am with Joe's wife, Virginia, on my right and Kent's oldest sister, Joyce, on my left.
Kent had put together a power point presentation with pictures from his mom's life. Kent's sisters prepared refreshments.
My friend, Lora Harrell, lives in Vancouver and we were able to meet for lunch one day. We've been friends since 1989.
While we were there Kent and I visited Fort Vancouver Historical Site.
We toured the Marshall House, where George C Marshall had lived when he was in the Army.
There was a whole street full of beautiful old homes where the Army officers used to live when it was an Army post.
Tyler and Rachel and their children, Andrew and Sylvia, came for a couple of days before we all headed over to the Christensen family reunion in Sun River, Oregon. Tyler helped out doing some roof and gutter cleaning on Grandma Carson's house. (He takes after his dad--helping with fix-it projects--in that respect.)
Tyler and Rachel at dinner with Kent's brothers, Marty and Joe.
Andrew loved riding the little bike at great Grandma Carson's house.
He and Sylvia also liked the little lawn chairs that were just their size.
On the drive to Sun River, a resort town in central Oregon, we had some more awesome views of Mt. Hood. We were on our way to a Christensen family reunion.
This was the closest view we had from around the back side of the mountain.
Here's a photo of the my original birth family, minus my oldest brother, who was killed in a car accident 25 years ago.
Garrett and Krystal's family drove down from Montana to attend the reunion. The cousins had fun playing together.
Krystal with Adam.
Granddad Carson had some fun activities for the grandchildren to do.
Kent and I, Garrett and Krystal's family, Tyler and Rachel's family, and my mom and dad all stayed in the same rental home. We had a good time and the weather was wonderful.
One day we went to the water park in the town.
Kent and my dad got pretty tuckered out, and showed the grandchildren the proper way to nap on a Sunday afternoon.
Three generations of Carson girls.
We attended church in nearby Bend, Oregon. Our family reunion took up about five rows in the overflow section of the church. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of the whole group.
After the reunion Kent and I drove down to Crater Lake, Oregon. It was only about an hour and a half drive from Sun River. We entered from the north entrance, which was closed later in the summer due to forest fires in the area.
We couldn't believe the bright blue color of the lake.
It was gorgeous, and as you can see, it was a beautiful sunny day in Oregon.
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in North America.
Since Crater Lake is the top of a volcano, we had a good view of the surrounding area from up by the lake.
Here's our attempt at a selfie. Not that great, but better than most of the selfies we try to take!
We set up our tripod to get this shot. It was purely by coincidence that our shirts matched the color of the lake!
After Crater Lake we flew back to Virginia on July 29th, after having a super fantastic month on the road enjoying the beauties of America and lots of time with family!
